Haptics is a tactile and force feedback technology that takes advantage of a user's sense of touch by applying haptic feedback effects (i.e., “haptic feedback” or “haptic effects”), such as forces, vibrations, and motions, to the user. Devices, such as mobile devices, touchscreen devices, personal computers, and wearable devices can be configured to generate haptic effects. In general, calls to embedded hardware capable of generating haptic effects (such as actuators) can be programmed within the device. These calls specify which haptic effect to play. For example, when a user interacts with the device using, for example, a button, touchscreen, lever, joystick, wheel, or some other control, the device can send a play command through control circuitry to the embedded hardware. The embedded hardware then produces the appropriate haptic effect.
When a haptic effect is authored by a haptic designer, the haptic effect can be authored under an assumption that a playback of the haptic effect occurs at a specific playback speed or rate. However, based on the device, the playback of the haptic effect can occur at a different playback rate. The playback of the haptic effect at a different playback rate can distort an end user's experience of the haptic effect. Further, the playback of the haptic effect may be synchronized with the playback of another type of input, such as audio input, video input, acceleration input, etc. If the playback rate of the other input is adjusted so that the playback rate of the other input does not match the playback rate of the haptic effect, the playback of the haptic effect may no longer be synchronized with the playback of the other input, which can further distort the end user's experience.